MICHAEL Blake senior Irish show jumping team finished sixth in the opening Longines FEI Nations Cup of 2020. Despite a solid start and sharing the lead at the half-way point, Ireland dropped to sixth place after a disappointing second round.

The thrilling competition went down to the wire with a jump-off between the all-female teams of Britain and USA, who eventually won out thanks to a blistering round against the clock from veteran Beezie Madden and Darry Lou. It was a phenomenal performance from Di Lampard’s relatively inexperienced British team however, who only fielded three riders so didn’t have the advantage of a drop score.

Ireland were drawn seventh of the eight teams over Alan Wade’s track and got off to the perfect start when Capt. Brian Cournane produced an excellent clear round with the 11-year-old gelding Armik (Armitage x Justinian xx), owned by the rider and Bob and Christine Stiller.

That form was further boosted with Paul O’Shea also kept a clean sheet with a foot perfect clear round aboard Tequestrian Farms’ 12-year-old gelding Imerald van’t Voorhof (Emerald van’t Ruytershof x Bacardi-Orange de Muze).

Cian O’Connor’s new horse Lazzaro Delle Schiave (Acodetto 2 x Gluecksgriff) was making his Nations Cup debut for Ireland and looked set to produce another good round until the final line, where the vertical at fence 10 fell, followed by a part of the double at 12, leaving the pair on eight faults.

Formally ridden by Italy’s Massimo Grossato, the horse has a solid record at five-star level and jumped in the Aga Khan at the Dublin Horse Show last season, as well as at the Nations Cup Final in Barcelona and at Spruce Meadows, among others.

Darragh Kenny was also caught out at that double on the last line with Ann Thompson’s 11-year-old gelding Romeo (Contact van de Heffinck x Orlando). Once again, the combination make it look easy until the unlucky fault saw them finish with four faults.

When O’Connor’s eight was discarded, Ireland were the joint-leaders at the half way stage with Britain, while Mexico, Israel and the USA all chased them with eight faults.

Second round

Cournane’s second round saw him finish with eight faults, collected at the oxer after the open water and the troublesome double on the line line. O’Shea also finished with eight faults. The first came at the middle part of the combination at fence four, when his mount took a spook on approach, while the last fence also fell.

O’Connor was unlucky to knock fence two in an otherwise perfect round, while Kenny looked like his was going to produce a clear round for Ireland to finish on 16 faults, before the last fence fell to see him also finish with four to add.

That left Ireland with a score of 20 in sixth place. Speaking afterwards, Michael Blake, on his fist outing as High Performance director, said: “We got off to a very good start with two early clear rounds for Brian Cournane and Paul O’Shea and things were looking very good for us at the halfway stage.

“We made a few mistakes in the second round and things didn’t go our way but these things happen when you are trying out some new horses who don’t have a lot of Nations Cup experience. It’s a long season ahead and it’s all about building our pool of horses and riders.

“I want to thank all our owners who made their horses available for us today and we pass on our congratulations to the American team on a fantastic win in front of their home fans. We now look forward to our next Nations Cup outing at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Florida.”

Jump-off

Britain’s final rider, Amanda Derbyshire (Cornwall BH), could have secured victory for Britain with a clear round, but a slight mishap over the second fence meant a jump-off between Britain and the USA. Emily Moffitt (Winning Good) produced a fantastic double clear for the team, while Alexandra Thornton (Cornetto K) improved on four faults from the opening round to finish on zero second time out.

Madden was first to go with a fresh Darry Lou, who didn’t have to jump in the second round, and broke the beam in 33.11 seconds. Thornton was chosen to jump for Britain and despite a good attempt, her time of 36.34 wasn’t enough to snatch victory away from the home side.

The home team was made up of Jessica Springsteen (RMF Zecilie), Laura Kraut (Confu, double clear) and Margie Engle, who took a tumble after completing her first round when Royce spooked at the crowd. Despite that, they returned to produce a clear round second time out.

Reflecting on the win, USA chef d’equipe Robert Ridland, said: “This is a hard [Nations Cup] for everybody, not just for us. These horses aren’t in mid-season form, but the field of play, when you looked at the teams last night, it would have been just as easy to be fifth for any team out there. It was really good jumping.”

Speaking about his track, Alan Wade, who made two fences higher moving into round two, commented: “I had a discussion with my assistants to keep the [1.60m] height and the distances maybe wouldn’t be as tricky as you might have in the Grand Prix. This class, to me, was probably the most important class I’ve designed this year.”